Hacker

The hacker group LulzSec is known for attacking sites more for fun and embarrassment rather than to steal and actually use the compromised personal data. The group has been staying in the headlines lately with attacks on the websites and servers of various prominent organizations including Sony, PBS, CodeMasters, and now game developer Bethesda Softworks and even the U.S. Senate.

We mentioned last week that three people had been arrested and detained in Spain in connection with the attacks on Sony's networks. We have now learned that police in Turkey have detained 32 more suspects that the authorities believe are linked to Anonymous. The Turkish state-run news agency reports that the suspect were taken into custody by police after raids in dozens of cities it's not clear how the police linked the 32 people to the hacker group.

Epic games, the developer of Gears of War, recently notified its forum members that its website and official forums had been hacked. With all the news about security breaches, it might be simpler to start announcing who has NOT been hacked. Not as serious as the attacks on Sony and Codemasters, the attackers were only able to obtain users email addresses and encrypted passwords. Fortunately no credit card numbers are stored on their sites, so none were obtained during the breach.

LulzSec has taken its sights off Sony for a moment and directed its efforts at aljahad.com, a purported terrorist site. We don’t know the official definition of what constitutes a terrorist site, but after checking out aljahad.com it could certainly fit the bill. The Lulz Boat took credit for nuking the site, and added the taunt “ujelly.” Even though aljahad.com was only temporarily brought down, Props to the Lulz team. It isn’t often we see hackers spun positively in the news.

Many third party apps ask your permission to access your Twitter account. If they are using OAuth, you might want to think twice. Most apps clearly state that they will not be able to access your private messages, when the truth is they actually can. With Wiener type stories in the news, this revelation is even more disconcerting. This privacy issue was outed by developer Simon Colijn who created a test application to prove that it exists.

There have been a slew of cyber attacks recently following the headlining Sony PlayStation Network breach that brought the network down for almost five weeks. The hacker group Anonymous was believed to be responsible, and now three alleged members in Spain have been arrested in relation to the attacks.

Sony has taken a beating at the hands of hackers over the last few months. The biggest of all the hacks and the one that cost Sony the most pride and money was the hack of the PSN that resulted in the loss of details on many of the user accounts for the PSN including emails and other personal info. Sony is just now getting the network back online fully and trying to soothe angered users with free games. The hacks are still coming though with other Sony sites falling victim to hackers.

Today if a foreign government hacks into a US computer system and causes issues, nothing much happens. Just look back at the hubbub with the hacks on Google and other major tech firms that were allegedly backed by the Chinese government and see that nothing other than name calling really happened. The Pentagon is setting the stage for a major change in policy with regards to cyber attacks.

Just when you think Sony's woes are about over as they've begun restoring the PlayStation Network, and soon the PlayStation store, they hit another embarrassing bump in the road. This time, thankfully, it's not the PSN again. Instead, it's Sony Japan's internet service provider, So-Net.

Ben Heck is one of those guys that is always modding something to work in ways it was never meant to. The latest project from The Ben Heck Show had Heck teaming with with another Ben - Ben Sawyer. The duo worked on a cool new controller system for the Games for Health Project that will allow parent-child interaction within a game. The controllers take multiple players to a new level by allowing two controllers to share input at one time on games.

Behold a fine few days of wonder! This edition of The Daily Slash I'd like to take you on a journey of the more important (or otherwise featured) items we've had happen this week. There's been an above-average amount of hands-on opportunities this week, and I want to make sure you don't miss a single one of them. Then there's the ongoing epic with Sony and their gaming network (hacks galore!) some fresh new earth-shattering games for Android, and oh my goodness, a whole new generation of iMac for your personal enjoyment. So very large!

Sony versus hackers continues and the company may now be more hot water based on revelations from the latest testimony to Congress on Wednesday. A data security expert from Purdue University, Dr. Gene Spafford told Congress that security experts knew Sony was still using outdated versions of the Apache Web server software, which did not have a firewall installed.